this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
790 points (98.8% liked)

World News

39032 readers
2645 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 143 points 10 months ago (3 children)

It's societal cancer, imagine an organism that allows a few cells to monopolize most of the nutrients. You'd cut it out to save the host, but this has metastasized. The immune system has been reprogrammed to defend the cancer.

[–] Plopp 43 points 10 months ago

You don't want cells to have the freedom to live the lives they want! You bio communist!

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago

Growth for the sake of growth is cancer. That's what it is. It destroys bodies and societies alike.

[–] SlopppyEngineer 14 points 10 months ago

To keep within biology: the host dies and others with the same vulnerability. The ones immune to this survive and gobble up what remains of the previous hosts. Everybody stands around wondering how this could've happened.

[–] [email protected] 92 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

This is not like when ordinary people double their money. They already have an unimaginable amount of wealth, so doubling it is adding another unimaginable quantity. This is a good illustration:

Wealth shown to scale

Remember that those boxes need to be twice as long now (but not our box).

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 41 points 10 months ago (3 children)

This is getting out of hands, economy and society are crumbling and everyone can see it with their own eyes. At this point is in the interest of any political party to stop billionares amassing wealth.

[–] Noodle07 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

But the politics are getting money from the billionaires so we're fucked

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Aceticon 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Personal upside maximization for professional sellers of ideas (aka politicians) is in using the power they attain through selling ideas to do favours for people who can pay them back the most.

Guess who can, in a money-centric society, be the most generous to friendly politicians... I'll give you a hint: it's not the poor, the working class or even the middle class.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] snekerpimp 40 points 10 months ago (10 children)

Should classify people who hoard wealth mentally unstable. What’s the difference between hoarding fake little pieces of green paper and shoes? Evidently hoarding shoes won’t make you a powerful demigod.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 10 months ago (5 children)

There’s very little actual paper. It’s just numbers on a computer screen. They’re hoarding numbers made of light. Resulting in the rest of us getting screwed.

[–] Orbituary 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There's very little light. They're hoarding bits of electromagnetic patterns on silicon wafers and platters shoved into noisy boxes

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

One day, I’m going to dive and swim in a giant vault filled with my own hoard of electromagnetic bits. Then people like me better watch their step!

[–] hakunawazo 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

Its a high score video game for them.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 10 months ago (3 children)

It's a system fault. Nobody earns a billion. No matter how willing you are to screw over other people, a billion can not be earned. Even if you were stealing every cent from your dying grandmother and all the ophans in the world, you'd still have to actually do it. Nobody lives long enough to have time to steal all that money.

It's also meaningless to try to spend that amount of money. It makes no sense to even try.

The money is multiplying by itself due to some error.

I suppose we found out what happens when dividing by zero.

[–] maness300 6 points 10 months ago

due to some error.

The error is people think this is how things should be.

Most people believe the disparity in wealth should grow, so that's what it does.

They also get mad when you point it out.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 10 months ago

We mothballed our guillotines. It's time to dust them off and get to work.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago

Sooo when do we stsrt eating them?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (7 children)

everybody jokingly says eat the rich but i happen to mean it

[–] SinningStromgald 11 points 10 months ago

I never joke about eating the rich.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What makes you think anyone is joking?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They probably taste horrible, but if we all eat our share then it won't be too big of an issue.

[–] SlopppyEngineer 6 points 10 months ago

Business idea: start selling billionaire sauce. Slogan: for when you have to eat the rich.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

They're familiar with the phrase. That's why they have so much security detail.

One of these, though, one of them is going to slip up and be in the wrong place and the wrong time. Then it is only natural that they are killed.

I know we're not supposed to incite violence on this platform. What I'm talking about is simply an historical cycle and it will inevitably happen.

[–] kromem 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No, the more likely scenario is that one group of them convinces a bunch of useful idiots to kill their peers that make slightly more creating a brain drain and destroying the host country while the actual billionaires jump ship like rats.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

the message needs to spread across the globe so there's no safe place for them. that's what the internet was supposed to do - connect all the people.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

I'd rather mulch mine, but same.

[–] snekerpimp 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] maness300 15 points 10 months ago

And people still buy into "they're a business and they need to make money!"

Where does that money go? Big picture, where does it go?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Highlighting a dramatic increase in inequality since the Covid pandemic, Oxfam said the world’s billionaires were $3.3tn (£2.6tn) richer than in 2020, and their wealth had grown three times faster than the rate of inflation.

Mirroring the fortunes of the super rich, it also says business profits have risen sharply despite pressure on households amid the cost of living crisis.

The world’s richest 1% own 59% of all global financial assets – including stocks, shares and bonds, plus stakes in privately held business.

Aleema Shivji, Oxfam’s interim chief executive, said: “These extremes cannot be accepted as the new norm, the world can’t afford another decade of division.

Extreme poverty in the poorest countries is still higher than it was pre-pandemic, yet a small number of super-rich men are racing to become the world’s first trillionaire within the next 10 years.

Governments worldwide are making deliberate political choices that enable and encourage this distorted concentration of wealth, while hundreds of millions of people live in poverty.


The original article contains 698 words, the summary contains 165 words. Saved 76%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] rabiddolphin 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

They got the TV, we got the truth

They own the judges and we got the proof

We got hella people, they got helicopters

They got the bombs and we got the, we got the

We got the guillotine

We got the guillotine, you better run

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] robocall 11 points 10 months ago

Elon Musk

Bernard Arnault

Jeff Bezos

Larry Ellison

Mark Zuckerberg

saved you a click

[–] havokdj 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

poorest get poorer

So you mean to tell me that those with no money or possessions have somehow attained negative value?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 10 months ago (3 children)

It's called debt and yes. People are turning to Credit Cards and Payday Loans to make the bills.

[–] havokdj 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Also, wealth does not only come from the amount of assets yoi have, your net income plays a big role in that as well.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

It does have a lot to do with total assets though.

Because at a certain point all assets(capital) generates its own money. It's the very basis of Capitalism.

Bill Gates total income didn't double during COVID. His assets just are worth a lot twice as much. Therefore he now is worth twice as much, and his assets generate twice as much wealth thereby compounding the issue.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] maness300 4 points 10 months ago

I saw something that said if you have $0, you are wealthier than X% of people in the US simply because you do not have debt.

[–] FeetinMashedPotatoes 8 points 10 months ago

Dang, I wonder if that money will ever come back into circulation with former taxation on their wealth. No? Okay just increase that money copier and keep inflation going BABAY!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Don't need an article to tell me that, I can feel it in my back pocket.

[–] Sterile_Technique 6 points 10 months ago
load more comments
view more: next ›